GP3 News: Ghiotto leads the way in Barcelona Free Practice

Trident’s Luca Ghiotto fastest in opening session of the season in Spain

Italian Luca Ghiotto set the pace in Free Practice at the Circuit de Catalunya for Round 1 of the 2015 GP3 Series. His best laptime of 1:36.238 was set in the final minute of the session. His Trident teammate Oscar Tunjo was second with Jenzer Motorsport’s Matheo Tuscher third.

Beautiful weather set the scene for the opening forty-five minute session and it was Trident rookie Artur Janosz who was first onto the circuit. The majority of drivers set around six to seven laps before heading back into the pitlane for set-up changes and new Pirelli rubber.

ART Grand Prix’s Esteban Ocon led the way for the most part of practice with local driver Alex Palou (Campos Racing) and Tunjo close behind. There was a red flag when Kevin Ceccon’s Arden Motorsport car stopped on track with smoke at the rear. The session was over for the Italian and as there was oil at turn nine, the drivers had to wait to return to track action until this was cleared.

Shortly after there was a second stoppage when Marvin Kirchhöfer ran wide and ended his session in the gravel. The ART Grand Prix ace got out of his car ok as the clock continued to tick down. In the final minutes, Tuscher shot up to P1 after lighting sector one purple but the moment lasted only for seconds as Tunjo pipped him by 0.067s.

The action wasn’t over though as Ghiotto was on a charge, recording the fastest time in sector one and shooting to the top of the pile to head the timesheet at the chequered flag. Behind the Italian were Tunjo, Tuscher, Ocon, Antonio Fuoco, Palou, Ralph Boschung, Mitchell Gilbert, Jimmy Eriksson and Alex Fontana.

The first qualifying takes place at 09.45 am local time tomorrow morning with all drivers keen to set a precious marker to open their campaign.